Exploring Themes in Stakeholder Perspectives of Video Remote Interpreting in Court

摘要

This chapter reports on a project conducted to investigate the feasibility of providing remotesigned language interpreting services through AVL in the legal system in the state ofNew South Wales (NSW), Australia. The project was commissioned by the NSW Departmentof Justice and Attorney General, with a view to informing policy about the provisionof signed language interpreters in court remotely via video.Until 2010, no research had been conducted on signed language interpreting services providedthrough AVL for legal purposes. Given the high stakes involved in legal proceedingsmediated through interpreters, it is imperative to analyse the effectiveness of remotesigned language interpreting via AVL to conduct legal proceedings.Qualitative findings are provided that give an overview of the stakeholder perspectivesof the effectiveness of AVL to enable signed language interpreter-mediated legal proceedings.Deaf and interpreter participants generally found that although there were no majorissues, they were not entirely comfortable communicating via this medium and inparticular there were pragmatic challenges. The chapter will inform spoken and signedlanguage interpreter practitioners about issues to consider when interpreting remotelyvia video.